SF: Oil Pares Gain After Unexpected Increase in Gasoline Supplies
June 30 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil futures pared gains after a U.S. government report showed an unexpected increase in supplies of gasoline.
Gasoline inventories rose 537,000 barrels to 218.1 million in the week ended June 25, the Energy Department said today in a weekly report. Stockpiles were forecast to decline by 400,000 barrels, according to the median of 16 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.
Inventories of crude oil fell 2.01 million barrels to 363.1 million, the department said. Supplies were forecast to drop by 1 million barrels.
Crude oil for August delivery rose 19 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $76.13 a barrel at 10:35 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil traded at $76.45 a barrel before the release of the report at 10:30 a.m. in Washington.
Oil also rose as Alex, the first June Atlantic hurricane since 1995, is prompting oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico to evacuate offshore workers and prepare for possible storm surges that may disrupt production at coastal refineries.
About 25 percent of crude output in the Gulf and 9 percent of natural-gas output has been halted, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said yesterday in a statement on its website. The report on shut-in production is based on responses from 23 companies as of 12:30 p.m. New York time.
U.S. business activity expanded in June, bolstering optimism that economic growth and energy demand will accelerate. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc. said its business barometer fell to 59.1 this month, in line with the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, from 59.7 in May.
German Unemployment
German unemployment fell for a 12th month in June as business confidence improved, putting the country's export-led economic recovery on a broader footing. The European nation is the world's sixth-biggest oil consumer, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
The number of people out of work declined a seasonally adjusted 21,000 to 3.23 million, the lowest level since December 2008, the Federal Labor Agency in Nuremberg said today. Unemployment was forecast to fall 30,000, according to the median of 29 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
